That’s a Moiré

That’s a Moiré

Work by Nathan Logan (MArch ’26) + Brandt Rentel (MArch ’26) for “Building Construction,” a course taught by Kevin Daly and Julia Koerner. The course surveys normative and advanced construction systems with a focus on digital fabrication and material assemblies, positioning construction knowledge as a resource for design thinking and tectonic imagination. “That’s a Moiré” reimagines the relationship between art-making and exhibition as a dynamic continuum rather than a divide, using overlapping spatial and material systems to blur boundaries between production and display. Through a central heptagonal void and a palette of meshes and veils, the project creates layered thresholds that balance visibility, privacy, and interaction within a hybrid cultural institution.

Project Statement:

“This project, sited within the unfinished concrete frame on Lincoln Boulevard, explores the spatial and conceptual tension between two intertwined programs: the production and the exhibition of art. Prompted by a central question—If you were making art for a show that opens in the same building in two weeks, would you want the public watching?—the design navigates the complexities of simultaneity, privacy, and visibility. Rather than treating these programs as discrete entities, we explore their overlap as a productive conflict, reframing the community art center as a hybrid cultural institution.

The earliest design strategy pushed the separation of “make” and “view” to its limit: art production was housed in the existing structure, while a new volume for exhibition was inserted beside it. Yet this diptych model, while legible, proved too rigid. The relationship between production and consumption is not a binary but a loop—characterized by iteration, commentary, and feedback. A purely oppositional layout risked undermining this reciprocity. As the project evolved, our focus shifted from separation to synthesis.”

“We introduced a heptagonal void at the center of the scheme—both spatial organizer and conceptual fulcrum. Rather than divide, this central volume mediates between programmatic functions, allowing varying degrees of interaction along seven axes. Privacy is preserved, but visual and spatial relationships are opened. Inspired by Ruth Asawa’s suspended wire forms, we sought to design thresholds that are simultaneously porous and defined. The project operates not through clean division, but through calibrated overlap—where programs bleed into one another without collapsing.”

“This ambiguity is supported materially through a palette of meshes, veils, and perforated assemblies. We became interested in surfaces that allow light, air, and sound to pass freely while regulating sight and presence. Kaynemaile—a polycarbonate mesh originally developed as an alternative to steel chainmail—became a key element in achieving this balance. Its lightweight, flexible structure enabled us to create suspended partitions that maintain formal clarity while softening the boundaries between spaces. Precedents such as SO-IL’s Kukje Gallery and Carmody Groarke’s Hill House Box provided conceptual and material references for how architecture might simultaneously conceal and reveal, preserve and project.

The building culminates in what we call the “Fifth Gallery,” an elevated public space 36 feet above street level. Here, above the more regulated zones of making and viewing, the dialectic is momentarily suspended. The gallery opens to the city and the sky, creating a civic platform for gathering, reflection, and informal exhibition. From this vantage point, visitors are able to perceive the building as a cohesive whole—its tensions unresolved, but made visible in layered gradients of light, material, and air.”

Building Construction

Building Construction course instructed by Kevin Daly and Julia Koerner

This course surveys normative and advanced construction systems and techniques with a focus on digital fabrication and material systems and applications. Rather than an encyclopedic survey it is intended as a resource in your design thinking and a means of building a tectonic imagination to support the conceptual development of your studio work. This course builds upon and expands on the fundamental construction logic, basic systems, and detailing principles which are part of A&UD 436 - Introduction to Building Construction. Further, the course elaborates on contemporary methods of design integration, digital fabrication, and assembly associated with professional practice and research in architecture through lectures, site visits and case studies.